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The 30 Greatest Living American Songwriters

The 30 Greatest Living American Songwriters

The Daily vor 4 Monaten

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43:21

Roughly a year ago, a team at The New York Times Magazine set
about tackling a nearly impossible task: creating a list of the
greatest living American songwriters. But how to take the tens of
thousands of songwriters working in this country and narrow them
down to a digestible list? The answer involved thousands of
voting ballots, hundreds of music industry insiders and a series
of closed-door meetings among a small group of music experts. The
result, The Times’s list of the 30 greatest living American
songwriters, was published this week.

Today, Michael Barbaro talks with Sasha Weiss, a deputy editor of
The Times Magazine, who oversaw the project, as well as Joe
Coscarelli and Jody Rosen, two members of the cadre of critics
assigned with compiling the final list. They discuss the
list-making process, what defines a great songwriter and why
Billy Joel didn’t make the final cut.

We also hear from some of the songwriters featured on the list,
including Taylor Swift, Nile Rodgers and the songwriting team of
Brandy Clark, Shane McAnally and Josh Osborne.

On Today's Episode:

Sasha Weiss is a deputy editor of The New York
Times Magazine.

Joe Coscarelli is a culture reporter for The
Times. He is a co-host of “Popcast,” a producer of the “Song of
the Week” video series and the author of “Rap Capital: An Atlanta
Story.”

Jody Rosen is a contributing writer for the
magazine and the author of “Two Wheels Good: The History and
Mystery of the Bicycle.”

Background Reading:

The 30 Greatest Living American Songwriters

Cast Your Vote for the Greatest Living American Songwriters

Photo credit: Stefan Ruiz for The New York Times

For more information on today’s episode, visit
nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each
episode will be made available by the next workday.

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